Del Toro's classic Anime and Kaiju homage is Gold for the fans but may leave non-fans perplexed at the multi-plex

Rating: 8/10 (13 August 2013)

I admit I've been very excited about this movie since the first posters & trailers appeared, mainly because I am coming at it from a similar place to Del Toro himself, someone who grew up loving the classic Japanese "Mecha-Anime" series which were bigger than God back in the 70s and 80s in Italy, Spain and other Latin countries (and who is also a big fan of their forbears, the "man in a monster suit" Kaiju films). That someone was attempting to make a live action summer blockbuster film based on them was exciting enough, but when that man was the great visionary Del Toro himself, then something really special seemed on the cards.
Of course expectations had to be dampened down, and wisely so. The film's biggest flaw is the plot. In condensing a typical anime series into 2hrs 11 minutes you have to concentrate on just the bare basics, and that makes for a very generic, seen it all before outline. Gone are most of the little sub-plots and character dynamics which gave the originals their quiet poetry, philosophy, humour and tragedy, and in their place is the standard "maverick rejected by others –pissing contest-learning to work together-taking the enemy down with desperate last plan" arc. If you're familiar with the originals then you can pretty much mentally fill in the blanks. If you're not then it's going to look very thin and underwhelming. It reminded me a lot of 1999's "Wing Commander", another retro-styled cheap and cheerful cheesefest.
The cast is also made up of genre archetypes – the lone maverick hero (Hunmann) the traumatised heroine desperate to prove herself and take revenge (Kikuchi), the arrogant jock who doesn't want the lone maverick on the team (Kazinsky) The aloof father figure head of operations (Elba) the pair of comedy bickering scientists (Day and Gorman) and the comical gangster (Perlman) – people who you would never in a million years imagine, nor want, as humanities last line of defence, but who somehow end up that way. In cartoon form it just about works, but in making them flesh and blood, the illusion is totally shattered. The actors, who apart from Elba, Perlman (and Spanish comedian Santiago Segura making another cameo for Del Toro as Perlman's henchman) are largely unknowns, do what they can, but there seems something deliberately false and forced about the acting, as if Del Toro was going for cheese knowingly, a tongue firmly in cheek, always a tricky route to take. The dialogue, which again apes that of the originals, comes off as rather silly, and Elba's grand rousing pre-battle speech sounds just daft.
Kikuchi's traumatic flashbacks to her experience as a child facing an early monster in Tokyo, and her rescue by a young Elba, are a rare but welcome bit of "depth" from the originals and in Del Toro's hands comes off very effectively. Similarly the comic side-route by the scientists to find parts of a monster brain to meld with by way of comedy gangster Perlman are funny and welcome.
The film borrows liberally from various series, both anime and live- action "Kaiju", both in plot and look. The main story seems borrowed from the classic Getter Robot, in which an underground civilization of fully evolved dinosaurs attempts to take back Earth from newcomers Man by way of huge hybrid dinosaur-cyborg monsters called "Mecha-Zaus" which spring up from below the ocean to strike a will. The mythology has been slightly rejigged, and a "dimensional breech" idea invented to fill in the obvious credibility gap of having an underground kingdom near the Earth's core. We see a few glimpses of these creatures, and of the monster-building process, but they are totally absent as characters, and so the story suffers. Part of the fun of the originals was having an enemy team, often back-stabbing and infighting for influence among themselves throughout the series course, but here they are unseen, and the Mecha-Zaus just crazed beasts. Other plot elements are borrowed from different series, as are the looks of the "Jaeger" robots. The main robot is modelled on the classic Tetsujin-28 (Del Toro's favourite) while the Australian and Chinese robots take their inspiration from the later Macross series, and the heavy tank like Russian robot seems an ode to similar battle suits in "Gundam". The piloting process is also updated, with a neuro-link called "drifting" whereby two become-one with the robot, and their body movements match up those of the robots. Similar ideas where floated in the originals, with an almost mystical link between pilot and machine, but most controlling was done by pulling various levers around, so this is an improvement on that. It also provides a vital plot point during the second act.
The Kaiju/Mecha-Zaus are also varied (the originals had special teams who worked on creating different enemy monsters/robots every episode) with dragon, gorilla, swordfish, tortoise, alligator and lobster inspired creatures. Each is given a Japanese codename, but sadly their names do not flash up beneath them in Japanese script when they first appear as they did in the originals! The fights are rough and violent, and battle winning weapons are only taken out at the last second for dramatic effect (as in the series) while superficial damage and anguish is visited upon the pilots. Many of the robots shown in posters never appear, while the Russian and Chinese robots, though really built up, are destroyed in seconds in an anti-climactic way.
In many ways this, like earlier live-action anime "Speed Racer", was never going to be a big winner, but rather a labour of love to and for a certain crowd. For the non anime/kaiju fan, it can still be a very fun night out, with great effects (The 3D is really used here) a few laughs, light tragedy and plenty of action which mercifully doesn't take itself too seriously. Don't expect too much and you should be entertained.